Dressed in Clouds

The first seven years of a cerebral-palsied child. The opening chapter introduces the family home that will welcome her. The second describes her birth and the emotional landscape of her parents. The mother senses immediately that something is wrong. She becomes seized by a frantic need to act, to do something while there is still time. Her husband resists facing the truth. He thinks his wife is exaggerating, and he desperately wants to believe the problem doesn't exist—because she's being hysterical, he tells himself, and so on. He withdraws while his wife begins the familiar pilgrimage from one supposed expert to another. After a year of discouraging visits, she is finally directed to Carlo Delacato. It happens by chance, not through any doctor's recommendation, but through a colleague of her husband who happened to have heard about this method. Then comes therapy, an encounter with volunteers, and eventually integration into preschool and school. On the whole, it is a fine book, well written, with clear chapters and sections that make it easy and pleasurable to read. The anguish of the parents is evident, but the book is never overwhelming. There is a profound love for the child running through it, and an intense experience lived with energy and ultimately with a certain peace.